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Beatrix Franklin
Beatrix "Trixie" Franklin is bright and glamorous nurse with an outgoing disposition. Personality Trixie loves nothing more than gossiping with her colleagues and is quite nosey when it comes to other people's business. She occasionally comes across as a bit rude, but she means no harm by it. When it comes to her friends, she takes great pleasure in teasing them about what is going on in their lives. She is caring but no-nonsense to her patients and is encouraging at hopeless times. She is light and carefree, jokes a lot, tries to set her colleagues up with boys and is generally a little boy-mad. Nevertheless, it is clear that work is first in her life. Helen George who plays Trixie Franklin says about her character: “She’s the fun loving, party going midwife who’s always up for a drink and a fag and to go out with the boys and have a good dance. She relishes trying to set up her fellow midwives with other guys and push them into relationships and get them married off but with a twinkle in her eye. Fundamentally though she’s a midwife and that’s what she’s there to do.” Biography Series 1 Trixie is a bright, glamorous girl in her late 20's, already living and working at Nonnatus House when Jenny arrives. All fully-fashioned nylons and lush red lipstick. She loves jazz and dancing, and smokes Sobranie cigarettes. She has a much more outgoing disposition than Jenny, but the two share the sense of adventure in their work and become firm friends. Series 2 In Series Two, the women of Nonnatus are commissioned to put on a baby show to raise money. After being asked to find someone famous to judge the babies, Trixie hears that a television host named Clifford Raines is filming his show nearby. She goes to the studio to deliver a letter to him, and unknown to her (as she does not know what he looks like), meets him outside. He flirts heavily with her, and she is flattered. Eventually, he promises to deliver her letter personally to Clifford Raines. Later, at Nonnatus, Clifford calls and flirts with her more, promptly asking her out in exchange for his appearance at the baby show. Trixie ecstatically accepts. However, when Trixie dresses up and goes to his luxurious hotel, she is dismayed to find that they will be dining there, alone. Clifford brushes it off by saying if they were to go out in public, they would be made a spectacle of. After dinner, Clifford makes her a very alcoholic drink and places his hand on the inside of her thigh. When she tensely asks him to move it, he moves it farther up her thigh, and says she must know how much men like it when a woman is being "playful" and teasing by saying no. He then forces himself on top of her, and fearfully, Trixie shoves him off, running from the hotel in tears. Later with Cynthia and Jenny, she tells them what happened. She expresses shame and embarrassment, going over what she said and did excessively, still in tears. She says she felt "special" because he paid attention to her. Cynthia brings her a bottle of alcohol to calm her down, and Trixie momentarily tells Jenny she doesn't want to be near another man again. Unexpectedly, Mr. Raine cancels on the nurses last minute, leaving them no time to find another famous judge. Thus, Sister Monica Joan judges the baby show. Series 3 In Season Three, Trixie meets Tom Hereward in a women's prison, when she provides care there. Tom and Trixie begin seeing each other later in the series. Series 4 In the 2014 Christmas episode, Trixie and Cynthia's friendship is strained when Cynthia admits she is seriously considering joining the Order. Trixie feels that Cynthia is only becoming a nun because she's never had a boyfriend. She doesn't consider Cynthia's spiritual life. At the end of the episode, she sadly says goodbye to Cynthia as she knows her. Trixie becomes very lonely as Jenny has left, Cynthia has joined the religious life and she realises that patsy is more interested in Delia than her. She also appears to be suspicious about Delia and Patsy, hinting she may know about their relationship. In Season Four, Trixie is promoted to 'Acting Sister' at the Tuesday Ante-natal and Baby clinic, and finds herself dealing with a case involving four children who live in appalling conditions whilst their mother is out trying to make a living as a prostitute. For Trixie, this proves to be a painful reminder of her own childhood. Vicar Tom Hereward is impressed with how well Trixie handles the situation and proposes to her and she accepts. After Tom is told by a bishop that he will be reassigned to a parish in Newcastle, Trixie breaks off the engagement as she doesn't feel she will be able to accompany him. Already fond of drink, Trixie soon lets her drinking get out of control and it begins to affect her work. Cynthia, now known as Sister Mary Cynthia, returns to Nonnatus House around this time and is quick to notice Trixie is not herself. In the last episode of Season Four, Trixie finally admits she has a drinking problem after she is stopped from calling the Samaritans by Sister Mary Cynthia, and she joins an alcoholics support group. Series 5 In Season Five Trixie appears to have got her drinking under control and has taken up keep fit classes, but is upset when ex-fiancé Tom begins dating her colleague, Nurse Barbara, and it seems she cannot let Tom go. Barbara almost ends her relationship with Tom because she can't bear to see that it is hurting Trixie, but Trixie soon learns to let Tom go and gives the union her blessing. Series 6 In the 2016 Christmas Special, Trixie accompanies her colleagues on a mission to South Africa where she finds herself having to deliver a baby herself by Caesarian section, which she finds emotionally taxing, but she successfully delivers the child and receives praise from Barbara. It is also shown that she still has a good relationship with Tom, and she advises him if and when he proposes to Barbara not to give her his grandmother's ring - which was the one Tom gave Trixie - but to get her something new. As it happens, Tom and Barbara get engaged at the end of the episode, and heeding Trixie's advice, Tom gives Barbara a blade of grass instead of a ring, intending to replace it later. Trixie is absent from the start of Season Six as she remained in South Africa to help run the mission hospital while the only doctor there recovers from illness. Trixie returns in Episode Three and reveals to Sister Julienne she stayed at the Motherhouse on her way back to Poplar and asked about Sister Mary Cynthia, who had supposedly been sent there by Sister Ursula, but nobody would divulge anything, and Trixie later confides in Sister Julienne that she doesn't think she was there (it's later revealed Sister Mary Cynthia is incarcerated in a mental institution receiving treatment for her anxiety stemming from the violent attack she suffered in the previous series). Trixie also helps support an expectant mother during a visit to the dentist and also helps to deliver her baby. Trixie meets dentist Christopher Dockerill in this episode. The relationship between Trixie and Christopher Dockerill progresses quickly, but it becomes apparent that they both have secrets that they are withholding from each other. When Christopher takes champagne to their date, Trixie makes an excuse not to drink it. She discloses her alcoholism in the next episode. Christopher later reveals that he has a 6 year old daughter (Alexandra Dockerill) from a previous marriage. Trixie is reluctant to meet her, concerned that she will not be good for her. In the Series 6 finale, Trixie meets Alexandra, and the pairing have an instantaneously close relationship. Series 7 After dealing with a mother with Huntington's Disease which has left her unable to care for her children, Trixie makes the difficult decision to end her relationship with Christopher out of concern for his young daughter, and this causes her to turn to drink once again. Her problems only worsen when she stops attending her AA meetings, and when colleague Phyllis learns that Trixie accepted a drink after delivering a newborn baby, something that they are forbidden to do, and reprimands her for it. Trixie eventually reveals her problems to Sister Julienne, who persuades her to take a six month leave of absence, and Trixie goes to stay with her godmother in Italy. In the Series 7 finale, Trixie briefly appears in a home movie that has been put together to commemorate Sister Monica Joan's birthday; she is shown at her godmother's villa where she wishes Sister Monica Joan a happy birthday and says she'll see everyone soon. Series 8 Trixie returns to Poplar in the 2018 Christmas Special. On returning to Nonnatus House, she finds that her woollens, including her uniform cardigan have been eaten by moths, so Phyllis gives her Barbara's cardigan (Barbara had sadly died from septicaemia while Trixie was away). During the course of Series 8, her friend Jeannie, undergoes an illegal abortion after discovering she is pregnant with her third child and Dr Turner refuses to refer her for a legal termination, but unfortunately, she later develops a serious infection which ultimately kills her. Later on, when colleague Valerie Dyer is called out to the Black Sail by her Auntie Flo, Trixie goes with her, and the two are shocked when they discover that Valerie's grandmother, Elsie Dyer, is the one responsible for performing the illegal abortions around Poplar. Both Trixie and Valerie later speak to the police and Elsie is arrested and later sentenced to six years in prison. Relationships Family Many cases of Midwifery remind Trixie of her childhood. In season 3, Trixie reveals that her father suffered from shell shock and during the day she had to take care of him while her mother cared for him in the night. In season 4, Trixie explains to Sister Julienne about her drinking issues and says, "I heard my dad tell so many people he didn't have a problem with drink" - hinting that her father was also an alcoholic. Friends Cynthia / Sister Mary Cynthia (former best friend) Jenny Lee (former best friend) Chummy (former friend) Jimmy (former friend) Tom (friend) Patsy (former best friend) Barbra (former best friend) Val (friend) Trivia * Helen George began dating her Call the Midwife co-star Jack Ashton (Tom Hereward) in 2016. The couple have a daughter, Wren Ivy, born in September 2017. * The reason Trixie was written out halfway through Series 7 was because Helen George was pregnant at the time of filming, and her baby bump was becoming more and more difficult to hide as time went on. Quotes Coming soon... References Coming soon... Category:Characters Category:Females Category:Midwives Category:Les Sages Femmes Category:SOS SAGES FEMMES SIXIÈME